The present invention relates to gaming devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to wagering gaming device displays.
Gaming devices provide fun and excitement to the player. Gaming, in general, provides an escape from the everyday rigors of life. Gaming devices and gaming establishments use bright lights and exciting sounds to set the gaming world apart from the rest of the world. Gaming devices, in particular, use one or more displays that enable the player to see and play the game. The displays typically portray the action of the game and ultimately indicate whether or not the player wins.
Slot machine displays have gone through a number of transitions since their inception in the late 1800""s. Originally, slot machines displayed purely mechanical reels. While these machines gained enormous popularity, the mechanical nature of the reels limited the number of paystops, which limited the number of different symbols and the number of different winning symbol combinations.
The advent of the computer and the video monitor expanded the possibilities for gaming devices. There are now video poker, video blackjack and other types of video gaming machines. Video displays have also been implemented in slot machines. The video slot machines use computers to randomly generate symbol combinations from an expanded number of different symbols. Video reel strips can include a virtually unlimited number of symbols, which enables a wide variety of different symbol combinations to be employed, including combinations that appear very infrequently and yield high payouts.
With slot machines, the video monitors have also been used to provide bonus or secondary games. Bonus games have become much more prevalent and elaborate in recent years. Players play the base game of slot until becoming eligible for a bonus game. The base game temporarily pauses, while the player plays the bonus game. When the player completes the bonus game, the gaming device returns the player to the bonus game.
It should therefore be appreciated that a single video monitor is often sufficient to provide both the base game of slot and one or more bonus games that become triggered by the slot game. As seen in FIG. 1B, there is room on the cabinet of gaming device 10b for an upper display area 32. This area, however, is often not used for gaming purposes and may simply provide a graphic and/or lettering that pertains to a theme of the gaming device.
Video monitors and in particular video-based slot machines are likely going to continue growing in popularity. As the video monitor has been used more and more, however, there has been a growing sentiment that some of the mystique of the old time mechanical gaming devices is lost when mechanical reels and mechanical displays are replaced by a video monitor.
Accordingly, a need exists to provide a gaming device that may use a video monitor, which provides increased flexibility to the gaming device to add more symbols and more elaborate bonus games, while providing some aspect of the gaming device that is mechanical and provides a fun and exciting mechanical display.
The present invention provides a mechanical display and indication for wagering gaming devices. The present invention includes various embodiments, each of which have a number of common elements. First, the embodiments each include a rotating set of symbol groups or indicia groups. The set includes at least two symbol groups and each symbol group includes a plurality of symbols. The symbol groups or groups of symbols rotate, appear and disappear from the player""s view. In this manner, the player sees each of the symbol groups and hopes that the gaming device awards the symbol representing the highest or best value from one of the symbol groups. The rotating symbol groups provide a first random generation. Second, each of the embodiments includes a translating or oscillating indicator such as an arrow. One or more indicators move in a sequence to point out or indicate one of the symbols from one the groups of symbols. The indicators provide a second random generation and a second visual element which produces the final outcome. These random generations can be simultaneous or sequential. The player""s attention is thus directed to both random generations including the changing symbol groups and the translating or oscillating indicator.
The gaming devices operable with the present invention include but are not limited to the games of slot, poker, keno, blackjack, bunco and checkers. The display and indicator operates with these base games and/or any bonus game, bonus triggering event, progressive game or any other type of secondary game thereof.
In one preferred embodiment, the display and indicator of the present invention operate with the game of slot and in particular a bonus game of a slot machine. That is, one or more indicators of the present invention point to or indicate an award provided to the player that is in addition to the winnings from the primary slot game. The symbols or indicia indicated by the display can represent any type of award or benefit for the player, such as base game credits, a multiplier of base game credits, a number of picks from a prize pool, a progressive game incrementation, a number of free spins or free games and any combination thereof. The indicia can also signal the player""s entry into a bonus game or into a different area of the base game.
For purposes of describing the present invention, the term symbol includes any suitable symbol or images such as numbers of a number of credits, values, letters or words such as the words xe2x80x9cfree spin,xe2x80x9d or playing cards. Each of these types of indicia has or potentially has a value to the player.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the display includes a multisided or multi-surfaced structure rotatable about an axis. For example, in one embodiment the structure is of a prism shape and has three surfaces. It should be appreciated, however, that the structure could be cylindrical and therefore have only one symbol displaying surface. The surfaces each display one of the symbol groups. In another embodiment, multiple structures are provided that move collectively and that each display at least one symbol of the symbol group. A motor or other type of motion control device rotates the structure, so that the symbol groups are sequentially shown and then hidden from the player. In one embodiment, the gaming device rotates each of the symbol groups into the player""s view at least once.
One embodiment includes a single indicator that oscillates or translates back and forth to sequentially indicate each of the symbols or symbol positions of the symbol groups. In one embodiment, the indicator includes an arrow. After a period of time, both the rotation of the structure and the oscillation or translation of the indicator stop sequentially or simultaneously, wherein the indicator points to or indicates one of the symbols in one of the symbol groups. The gaming device uses the indicated symbol in a designated manner, such as to provide a number of base game credits to the player, to provide a number of free games or free spins, to provide a number of picks from a prize pool, to indicate the entry into a bonus game, to increment a progressive jackpot and any combination thereof.
In one embodiment, a single motor rotates the structure and translates or oscillates the indicator. One or more mechanical linkages and gears enable the motor to drive the structure and the indicator and to convert rotational motion to translational or oscillating motion. Here, when the motor stops moving, the structure and indicator stop moving simultaneously. Proper gearing enables the structure and indicator to move at desired relative speeds.
In another embodiment, a separate motion control device is used to drive the structure and the indicator. A actuator such as a motor, for example, can be directly or indirectly coupled to a shaft connected to the structure. Another actuator such as a motor can be coupled to one or more mechanical linkages and/or gears that convert the motor""s rotational motion to the translational motion of the indicator. When the motors run independently, either the structure or the indicator can stop moving at different times. The structure and indicator can alternatively move at completely different times, e.g., one after the other.
In this primary embodiment, the rotation of the structure provides one random element and the ultimate location of the indicator provides another. Each side or surface of the structure has a symbol group including a plurality of symbols of any average amount desired by the game implementor. One of the sides may have a symbol having a relatively large value adjacent to a symbol having a relatively small value. If this side is ultimately presented to the player, the indicator points to either the large or small valued symbol, one of which is ultimately provided to the player. Other sides can have a plurality of medium valued symbols. Other sides can have mixed symbols, e.g., mixed credits or multipliers, mixed credits and free spins, mixed credits and picks from a prize pool, etc.
Another primary embodiment of the present invention includes multiple translating indicators. Here, instead of a single indicator translating or oscillating back and forth, sequentially pointing to different symbols or symbol positions, each indicator moves towards or away from a single associated symbol position of each of the groups. In one preferred embodiment, only one indicator is close to its symbol, i.e., indicating the symbol, at a given time. Other indicators may at the same time be in the process of moving towards their respective symbol positions. Still other indicators are fully moved away from their respective symbol positions. When the structure stops rotating and the indicators or arrows stop translating, the gaming device awards the player with the value of the symbol of the indicator closest to its associated symbol. The award can be any of those described above. In one such embodiment, a motor is coupled to a lead screw which drives a cam to oscillate the indicator. As the motor spins, the cam translates along the lead screw. The cam has a shape, such as a triangular shape that pushes one or more of the indicators towards the associated symbol position. The indicator currently located at the tip of the cam is the one that is currently closest to and therefore indicating its associated symbol position. The symbols in the symbol positions change due to the rotation of the structure. The indicators are spring loaded and return to their xe2x80x9cnon-indicatingxe2x80x9d position once the cam passes by.